Trump looks to repurpose federal money to expand school choice programs

Private school vouchers and other school choice initiatives would expand under an order coming from President Donald Trump telling government agencies to repurpose federal dollars.

The Education Department is being told to use discretionary money to prioritize school choice programs and give states new guidance on how they can use federal money to support K-12 voucher programs.

The executive order that he plans to sign Wednesday could free up some pockets of federal money to be used on school choice, but it is not clear how far he could move the needle with federal money alone. The vast majority of school funding comes from state and local sources, and school choice policies are generally the purview of state governments.

The order says traditional public schools have failed students and that the new administration will reverse course “by opening up opportunities for students to attend the school that best fits their needs.”

Other agencies, including the departments of Defense and Health and Human Services and the Bureau of Indian Education, would be directed to help states and families find ways to use existing federal money for school choice programs.

The signing, as conservative groups are celebrating National School Choice, comes the same day that results from a national exam found that America’s students have continued to fall behind in reading and made little improvement in math in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The order cites the National Assessment of Educational Progress finding that 70% of eighth-grade students were not proficient in reading and 72% were not proficient in math.

Responding to the results, the Trump administration said it is “committed to reorienting our education system to fully empower states, to prioritize meaningful learning and provide universal access to high-quality instruction.”

Trump campaigned on a promise to expand school choice, long a key part of the Republican education agenda. He promised to create “massive funding preferences” for states that adopt universal school choice — a policy that lets almost all families use taxpayer-funded education money to attend private schools, homeschooling or other options beyond local public schools.

Arizona became the first state to adopt universal school choice in 2022 and several Republican-states have followed. Opponents say the policy is designed to gut public education.

During his first term, Trump also tried to expand school choice and he made Betsy DeVos, a prominent school choice advocate, as education secretary. DeVos worked with governors to expand state policies but failed to get Congress to pass legislation that would have provided tax breaks for donations made to scholarships for private schools or other education options.

Trump has nominated billionaire professional wrestling mogul Linda McMahon to serve as his next education chief. McMahon, whose Senate hearing has not been scheduled yet, has called for an expansion of school choice policies.